Past Residents
Past Resident2010: Artadia
Theaster Gates
If pressed to describe Theaster Gates’ work in one word, it would be ‘transformative.’ In his performances, installations and urban interventions, Gates—an artist, musician and ‘cultural planner’ as well as director of arts program development for the University of Chicago—transforms spaces, relationships, traditions and perceptions.
Exploring architecture as a tool for mediation and meditation, Gates draws from both urbanism and art to provide what he terms ‘moments of interstitial beauty’ in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. His most recent project, ‘Temple’, comprises two neighboring houses whose interiors he completely rebuilt of donated and repurposed materials to create spaces for workshops, exhibitions and other public events on topics of race, art and politics.
Gates’ work is funded by the Joyce Foundation, the Graham Foundation, and the African American Art Alliance. In 2010 alone, he has performed
and exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and the Armory Show in New York, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Brunno David Gallery and Pulitzer Museum of Art in St. Louis, and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. He also completed residencies with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wis., Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon, and Artadia New York. He is a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design for 2010-11.
Theaster Gates, Single Structure and Foreclosure List, 2010, 96 × 48 × 120 in. (243.84 × 121.92 × 304.8 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Pulitzer Museum Project, St. Louis.
Theaster Gates, The Story of Yamaguchi, 2007, 960 × 72 in. (2438.4 × 182.88 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago.
Theaster Gates, To Speculate Darkly, 2010, 226 × 48 in. (574.04 × 121.92 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Milwaukee Art Museum.
Theaster Gates, Temple, 2010, 264 × 216 × 144 in. (670.56 × 548.64 × 365.76 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Whitney Biennial, New York.
Residents from United States
Past Resident2010: ACC - Asian Cultural Council
Jiandyin (Jiradej & Pornpilai Meemalai)
Jiandyin are interdisciplinary collaborative artists from Thailand. Pornpilai Meemalai received her MA from School of Applied Art, Royal College of Art, London, UK. Jiradej Meemalai received his MFA (Sculpture) from Faculty of Decorative Arts, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Pornpilai is a 2008 recipient of Silp Bhirasri Creativity Grant of Silpakorn University, Thailand. Jiradej was awarded several competitions including 46th National Art Competition, 2000 and the Kasikorn Bank Group Contemporary Art Competitions, 2000. He was artist in residence at Art Omi International Art Center, 2008. They received a fellowship grant award from the Asian Cultural Council, New York and they were artists-in-residence at Headlands Center for the Arts. Jiandyin have participated in The Penang Island Sculpture Project, Penang Island, Malaysia and Art Live World, Chair and the Maiden Gallery, New York and will have a solo exhibition at Kokoro Studio, San Francisco, California.
Through their married life they discovered artistic value while searching for resolution for their disputes. Their works are models for looking at the tension in human relationships. They also project an awareness of ‘living together as an adaptation’ in the rapidly globalizing world that we live in. In 2010, they began a participation project called Dialogue. It is an ongoing collaborative drawing of Thai / Thai American couples who live in United States.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Nicolas Grum (Chile) and Jiandyin (Thailand)
September 7, 2010
Jiandyin (Jiradej & Pornpilai Meemalai), Sinking sculpture, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
Jiandyin (Jiradej & Pornpilai Meemalai), On Adaptation, 2010. Courtesy of the artist.
Jiandyin (Jiradej & Pornpilai Meemalai), Holding a Balance, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.
Jiandyin (Jiradej & Pornpilai Meemalai), Self Portrait, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Thailand
Bundith Phunsombatlert
Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council District 34, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Hartfield Foundation, Joseph Robert Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
2013
Past Resident2010: KUD Mreza Association for Arts and Culture, Alkatraz Gallery
Nika Oblak & Primoz Novak
‘The work of Nika Oblak and Primož Novak draws parallels between a society driven by personal needs and capital and their own role as artists in the contemporary art market. Infused with humor, their work adopts the visual tactics and seductive constructions commonly employed in the mass media to lure the consumer.’ (Yasmeen Baig-Clifford, Move – new European media art, 2009) Oblak & Novak have exhibited in the Sharjah Biennial 9, UAE; Istanbul Biennial, Turkey; Japan Media Arts Festival; Transmediale Berlin, Germany; and most recently in Biennale Cuvee, Linz, Austria.
Nika Oblak & Primoz Novak. Courtesy of the artist.
